Cultural Map

Aradac

Aradac was the first village in Banat, a district of Vojvodina, inhabited by the Slovak community. There has always been a very rich and lively cultural life in Aradac. In the last few years a female national orchestra "Aradacke Meskarke" has become a widely recognizable brand of the village.

Ašanja

Asanja communnity is a part of Pecinci municipality which is located in the Srem district. Slovak community is a minority here with only 38 inhabitants.

Bačka Palanka

Town Backa Palanka is the organizer of the Encounter of Students of Slovak Minority. It is an accompaning manifestation of Slovak National Festival which attracts a vast number of young Slovak intellectuals.This program presents artistic creativity and musical talent of the students.

Bački Petrovac

Backi Petrovac is the center of Vojvodina's Slovaks culture. A great number of significant institutions are located here ( Matica Slovacka, Secondary School "Jan Kolar", Vojvodina's Slovak Theatre, The National Museum). Numerous eminent Slovaks from the cultural field have been born here.

Bajša

Bajsa community is a part of Backa Topola municipality in the Northern Backa district.
It is 6 km away from Backa Topola. Since the time of its establishment, this community has been multiethnic and multiconfessional. The first elementary school founded in Bajsa was a Slovak school.

Begeč

Begec settlement is a part of Novi Sad municipality. It is located 20 km west from the town. It has 3335 inhabitants of which 13% belong to Slovak minority.

Beograd

A great number of Slovaks live in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. They came mainly through secondary migration from many places in Vojvodina. They have preserved their tradition with Society of Yugoslav, Czech and Slovak Unity. Since 2004 Slovak Evangelical Church has been active here.

Belo Blato

Slovaks inhabited Belo Blato in 1882 mainly through secondary migration from Padina. Initially it was necessary to build houses, clear the fields, drain the marshes. Houses were made of mud, roof rafters were wooden, covered with rye straws or reed.

Bingula

Bingula is located in the west of Srem and the south-east of Vojvodina. The name consists of two words: bin- meaning thousand and gula- meaning spring, so Bingula means a thousand springs. The explanation of the name origin could be true since there are many springs in the fields of Bingula.

Boljevci

Boljevci settlement is located in Srem, 29 km west from Belgrade, on the right bank of the Sava River. It has 4055 inhabitants of which 1132 belong to Slovak minority. The main representative of local Slovak cultural activities is "Andrej Sladkovic" art club.

Čelarevo

Celarevo settlement is a part of Backa Palanka municipality. It is located in South Banat district. According to the last census it has 5423 inhabitants of which 462 belong to Slovak minority.

Dobanovci

Dobanovci settlement is a part of Belgrade and a new city municipality, Surcin. Slovak Cultural and Educational Society "Safarik", Slovak Evangelical Church and Slovak National House are the center of the cultural life of local Slovaks.

Erdevik

Erdevik is a settlement in Srem, on the south hillside of Fruska Gora. It is recognizable for its rich flora and fauna and many archeological sites. Still, this location is most famous for its vineyards, wine cellars and naturally its wine, an important part of every cultural manifestation.

Hajdučica

Hajducica is located in the south-east of Banat, Plandiste municipality. Nowadays 600 Slovaks live there. They have preserved their national identity for more than 200 years. In 2009 they built a Slovak Evangelical Church and were the organizers of the "Tancuj Tancuj..." festival.

Gložan

This is the place where the biggest Slovak dance festival "Tancuj, Tancuj..." originated. During the festival in the Glozan amphitheater perform Slovak folk dance ensembles, singers, choirs and folk orchestras from all over Vojvodina.

Janošik

What is usually associated with Janosik is growing sour cherries. It has become its biggest tourist attraction in recent years. In June people of Janosik make products of cherries (cakes, jams, compotes, spirits, juice). There is a manifestation dedicated to this fruit called "Cherry Days".

Kovačica

Kovacica has become world famous for its naive painters creating and presenting their works here for 50 years. Their paintings portray peasants' way of life, national clothes and local customs. For visual art lovers there is a Galery of Naive Arts and numerous privately owned galeries.

Kulpín

In the mere center of Kulpin two castles stand tall. They have both been declared as highly important cultural monuments. The spacious park where the castles are is a natural monument and habitat of rare plant species. Also, here is the center of the Agricultural Museum.

Kisač

Cultural life of Kisac is extremely rich. Slovak culture has been preserved and promoted by the people of Kisac through the work of Cultural-Information Center of Kisac which is also the organizer of the Slovak folk dance festival for children "Zlata Brana".

Lalić

Lalic settlement is a part of Odzaci municipality. The name originated from the Serbian word lala (tulip) meaning l'alia in Slovak. The diminutive form of lala is lalic. It is believed that the place got its name due to the fact that there were many tulips growing nearby.

Ljuba

Ljuba is a typical mountain settlement in Srem. The first Slovak families inhabited this area in 1847 through secondary migration from settlements in Backa district. Nowadays Ljuba is a multicultural and a multiconfessional place and therefore has three churches - orthodox, catholic and evangelical.

Lug

Lug settlement is a part of Beocin municipality, in the north of Fruska Gora. This was the last settlement of Slovaks in 1902, mainly through migrations from the Backa district's towns: Backi Petrovac, Glozan and Kulpin. Nowadays it has around 800 inhabitants, mainly of Slovak nationality.

Novi Sad

Novi Sad is the capital of multicultural and multiconfessional Vojvodina. It is the center of many significant institutions and institutes which preserve promote and develop not only the culture of Slovaks from Novi Sad but all the Slovaks living in Vojvodina.

Padina

In the northwest slope of Deliblato Sand lays Padina settlement. Ever since they moved there, its inhabitants have been struggling with the lack of drinking water and fertile land. That hasn't stopped them from staying and preserving their tradition, language and culture.

Pivnice

Pivnice settlement is located in the southwest of Vojvodina, Backa Palanka municipality. It is well known for its traditional festival Gathering in Pivnica Fields ("Stretnutie v pivnickom poli") which has had a major part in preserving national songs, music and clothes from the Lower Land.

Savino Selo

Savino Selo

Selenča

Slovaks came to Selenca in 1758. Some of them were Evangelists and some were Roman Catholics. They had different customs and national clothes. The Evangelists spoke the middle Slovakia's dialect whereas the Roman Catholics spoke the west Slovakia's one, the difference which exists even today.

Silbaš

Cultural life of Slovaks in Silbas is improving thanks to the youngest members of the community, the youth folk ensemble "Silbašanik". This is the most prominent youth ensemble which has achieved significant results even on the national level and has successfully represented Slovak culture.

Slankamenački Vinogradi

This settlement in Srem emerged at the end of the 19th century on the east hillside of Fruska Gora. Its inhabitants, so called “Brehovčania”, are famous for their authentic music and lyrics which intrigue everyone who visits their cultural-gastronomic manifestation "Budar Days".

Sremska Mitrovica

Sremska Mitrovica

Stara Pazova

Outside the Slovakia, the greatest number of Slovaks lives in Stara Pazova. Cultural life of this town is organized mainly under the patronage of SKUD, within which there is Slovak Theatre, VHV, FA “Klasy”, Ljudmila Hurbanova's Literary Troop, festival of Youth Theater "3xD", etc.

Šid

Sid is a municipality located on the hillside of Fruska Gora. This town in Srem has more than 16 thousand inhabitants of which 899 belong to Slovak minority. It has many tourist attractions like nearby lakes, hiking trips on Fruska Gora or exploring the nature around the Danube River.

Višnjićevo

Visnjicevo

Vojlovica

Cultural life of Vojlovica, the settlement which is a part of Pancevo in Banat, has been very rich ever since the first Slovaks inhabited it. Cultural activities have been especially developed with the founding of the Slovak Cultural and Education Association Detvan.

Zrenjanin

Since 2005 Slovaks in Zrenjanin have had annual celebrations of The Day of Zrenjanin Slovaks on April 10th. This date has been set based on the oldest written document about their ancestors dating from the year 1795. There is a varied cultural manifestation held every year.

Legend

church

museum

gallery

etno house

theatre

historic site

Cultural map, as a separate section of the portal, offers you the possibility to learn more about the cultural and social life of the Slovak minority in Serbia starting with the time of the first settlement of the Slovaks until the present day. Special attention has been paid to the current cultural subject matters.

A well-known Slovak historian Jan Siracki,who is originally from Backi Petrovac, has been dealing with the issues of the Slovak settlement in Lower Land as well as in Banat, Backa and Srem. This historian places the beginning point of the settlement in the second half of the 18th century. Based on his research we find out that at the time many subjects, mainly from the northern Slovak counties, left their nobility and moved to the southern Slovak counties and occasionally to the territory of the present day Hungary. When analysing these territorial movements we can determine the beginning of the Slovak migrations to the Lower Land which became common in the first half, continued in the second half of the 18th century and were also present to a much less degree in most of the 19th century. As a result, in Lower Land, between the rivers Danube and Tisa, in Bekes area and partially in the present day north-east Hungary, Backa, Banat and Srem ( present day Vojvodina) there is a tight Slovak community. Smaller Slovak groups have also inhabited Romania (around Nadlak), Croatia (around Našice), and Bulgaria (around Gornja Mitropolija).

The beginning of the Slovak migrations to the Lower Land coinsides with the time frame of the major actions of the Habsburg monarchy and Hungarian nobility whose goal was to inhabit the area devastated by the second war against the Turks with people from other European countries as well as with people living in densely populated areas of Hungary itself.

The development of national, cultural and social life of the Slovak minority in Serbia has been portrayed by the Cultural map of this portal by describing 33 places in Serbia inhabited by the Slovaks. Texts about each place contain relevant historical, geographical and demographic facts and emphasize the uniqueness of them by presenting their tourist attractions. The authors focused primarily on the current situation in Slovak environments with the emphasis on their cultural events and manifestations.